Ancoats is imminently launching a new public space dubbed The Cutting Room the launch event for which is a user-generated series of activities as submitted to The Cutting Room Experiment website. Much has been written about the experiment by various local bloggers; @manchesterisace @mancubist and @runpaintrunrun have all weighed in in with varying degrees of analysis and opinion.

Now that the votes have been counted, the viability of the various ideas traded off and the final selection for the launch day announced I've been giving some thought to what should be done about my idea to Green Ancoats which (for perfectly understandable reasons) didn't make the cut. What's below is more-or-less how I submitted my idea to the experiment, with some further reflective thoughts added.

So it didn't get enough votes to be part of the experiment... but that's not to say it's a bad idea or one that shouldn't be pursued in some form or other. I've been chatting with the few local residents I know about seeing if we can come to some arrangement with the powers that be (ie the NWRDA and New East Manchester Company) to give over a parcel of land for such a community activity. If they are amenable to such an idea and prepared to contribute a little to its sustainance then getting a few guerilla gardeners together on a voluntary basis shouldn't prove too hard.

Image credits: Meadow bits of above image courtesy of Artcatcher on Flickr... the rest by myself